


What One Can and Can't Do

by justsleepwalkin



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsleepwalkin/pseuds/justsleepwalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somewhere outside the TARDIS, the Doctor is trying to save a dying planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What One Can and Can't Do

Somewhere outside the TARDIS, the Doctor is trying to save a dying planet. The Doctor returns on occasion, looking more and more frazzled, babbling on about the surface crumbling for no explainable reason and, no, he still hasn’t figured out. Each time he pauses in his prattling to look at the Master, long and meaningful, hoping the other Time Lord will cave and lend him a hand. The Master doesn’t. He remains in the same worn pilot seat, feet up on the console, looking bored in the face of the Doctor’s desperation.

He says during one of the prattling sessions, “Planets die all the time.” And the lowness of his voice cuts the Doctor’s words, causing him to fumble for recovery, for a sense of balance. And then it becomes clear in his eyes that he doesn’t want to hear the Master’s words. “You cannot save them. You cannot change their fate.”

“You cannot always seek mindless destruction,” the Doctor snaps in return. There’s a sharp edge to his frame. He’s physically torn between stalking back to the planet and trying to fix the problem, or arguing harshly with the Master. He can do both – one after the other…

“It isn’t mindless, Doctor,” the Master replies, placating the other. “It’s a natural phenomenon. Even a Time Lord cannot control these things. Leave these people to die on their own. Stop giving them such _false hope_ when you know, in that savage corner of your mind, that you can’t save them. Leave now before the TARDIS gets swallowed up by the planet’s core and before your failure burns alongside everything else.”

“If you just _helped me_ for once, we wouldn’t have to worry about it!”

“You’ve been using me as a wall to bounce your theories off of for hours today, Doctor. I’ve listened. You’ve tried everything you can think of; there isn’t anything else, I assure you. The deterioration rate is increasing rapidly now and it won’t change. If you have any hope of ever trying to ‘save’ another civilization again, you’ll leave now.”

Like a robot, emotions closed off and body making rough motions, the Doctor eases the TARDIS away from the planet. They stay in the vortex in silence for a good few hours; the Doctor mourns for the people and the planet. Finally, the Master leans forward, hands clasping together. He stares at the Doctor levelly, and then he tells him exactly what he could have done to save everyone, and he loves himself for what it does to the Doctor.


End file.
